When I worked for Chevron Pipeline, I attended a ILI (Inline Inspection) seminar in Sandi Arabia as a representative of Chevron. On the way back to the USA, I stopped in Karlsrue, Germany to visit the Pipetronix research center where crack detection smart pigs were developed for inspection of Russian pipelines. I believed that crack detection ILI tools would soon be required in the USA pipeline inspection market. Due to the recent Enbridge pipeline rupture in Michigan due to SCC (Stress Corrosion Cracking) and the questions raised about the accuracy of the smart pigs used on that pipeline, I decided to research how much crack detection technology has improved in Russia since my visit to Germany.
The information posted in this blog article comes completely from Russia. The national natural gas pipeline operator in Russia found TFI MFL tools sufficient to locate near neutral SCC colonies in their pipelines. The Argentina national natural gas operator used Russian TFI MFL tools to inspect their pipelines for SCC colonies and found the smart pigs unable of properly detecting and sizing classic (high pH) SCC colonies. The Argentina pipeline operator developed EMAT smart pigs for inspection of their pipelines. The Russians modified their TFI MFL tools to have Argentinian developed EMAT technology to improve detection and sizing of SCC colonies.
Attached is information on the existing Russian smart pigs for finding corrosion and crack defects in natural gas pipelines. The information is posted without comment.
Awesome info, thank you! I just came from www.smartpigs.net and I wish they had this detailed spec info like this. Looks like the russians have their stuff together! Kinda surprised me actually since I thought they were a bit behind in drilling innovation etc
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